Terrible Things
by Wolfie135
Summary: Tony finally tells his son Harold the story of his mother. One shot song fic based off of Terrible Things by Mayday Parade please r&r x3


**AN - **So yeah, I was listening to Terrible Things by Mayday Parade and the idea for this just kind of flung itself at me along with the three thousand tons of feels that song had already decided to dump upon me too. You should definitely listen to this song if you haven't already heard it because its just simply amazing x3 Any way enjoy and what not and review if you have the time ;) And the characters of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts are not mine *cries in a corner wishing they were (not really but you get the idea ;) )* but Harold is mine so ner to you Marvel. (Please don't hate me Marvel and continue to make amazing stuff to which I can obsess over! O_O)

It was 2:23 AM in the Stark house hold of Malibu and Tony Stark sat alone in his lab and held a picture of Pepper; his should have been wife, in his hands. His calloused finger tips gently ran over her face as he closed his eyes and desperately tried to remember how it felt to actually touch her. To caress her face or run his hands through her hair or what her lips had been like under his when he had kissed her.

He heard the door to his lab slide open and he quickly wiped away his tears, and placed the picture of Pepper down on his lab desk. Tony turned to see his now thirty year old son walk in, dressed in his Hulk pyjamas pants, a salute to his favourite uncle – and one of Tony's best friends.

"Hey buddy, what are you doin' up?" Tony asked

"I couldn't sleep. Figured you'd be down here." His son Harold spoke quietly

"Want me to make you some hot chocolate?" Tony said after a moments of silence, and stood up when his son nodded in the affirmative.

Tony had discovered over the years that when his son's mind was too active and would not let him sleep, the best solution had been just sitting with his dad and drinking hot chocolate.

He moved over the cupboards, where he stored various food and drinking items. It had become more stocked ever since Harold had been born, a change from his early days where he had thought coffee was the only thing he would ever need. First it had been baby bottles and formula, and then tiny jars of mushed up 'food' and after that it had been anything and everything he had thought kids would like; including hot chocolate ingredients. Even now the habit of keeping food in there had never been kicked, even when his son had moved out.

He had Jarvis heat the milk whilst he placed newly broken pieces of chocolate into a small mug for Harold and a slightly larger one for himself. He poured the heated milk over the chocolate and stirred whilst it melted. When he was finished he carried the two mugs over to his son, who was stood by the desk.

"C'mon," Tony said, "We can sit on the couch."

"Dad?" Harold spoke questioningly. "Is this Mom?"

Tony turned back round to face his son, and only then realised that he was holding the picture of Pepper in his hands and was looking at her curiously. Tony sighed, and nodded his head.

"Yeah. That's her."

Tony turned and sat on the couch at one of end of the expansive room and heard his son follow behind him.

"Would you tell me about her?" Harold asked cautiously, as his father offered him his drink and sat down.

He had heard accounts of her from many people, but never had his father spoke much about her except maybe in passing comments such as 'Temper just like you mother's.' or 'Your mom would have loved that.'

"Yeah. Alright. I guess I can do that."

Tony closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He figured he might as well start from the beginning.

"By the time I was your age, I'd have given anything to have truly fallen in love. I thought it impossible. I thought that all a girl would ever want from me is sex and my money. That's when I met your mother; the girl of my dreams and the most _beautiful_ woman that I'd ever seen."

He took a pause, thinking back. He had thought Pepper really was good looking when he had hired her, but he had been more interested in her wit and intellectual beauty at the time. He had never really stopped and looked at her true physical attractiveness till that fateful night at the Fire Fighters benefit; when he had first discovered Obadiah's betrayal and underhanded business dealings.

"Well her intellectual beauty anyway," He chuckled as his son smiled gently. "Never really looked for more than that in her at first. She was too important to me, and I didn't want to ruin the bond we had developed afterwards, because as much as would have liked, I knew I wasn't ready for anything more than sex."

Harold just sat quietly, listening to a story he never thought he would hear his father tell.

"Well, then. After hiring her, life went about as usual. I was a classic billionaire playboy and occasional philanthropist who was lucky enough to be a genius that could keep his company on the top."

Tony took a brief pause, his kidnapping not nearly as hard to talk about as it had once been.

"Then I was kidnapped by terrorists who thought they could use me, but soon found out they couldn't, and they basically were the reason I first invented the Iron Man suit. Well after I broke out at the cost of my cell mate, Yinsen's life, I came home and my whole perspective had changed. I shut down weapons manufacturing of Stark Industries, and Pepper, well she thought I was entirely mad. But she supported me, through it all.

The company wasn't the only thing my eyes had been opened to, either. I realised that all the time I had been hoping the perfect woman would come along to change me out of my ways and be everything I had hoped for, the perfect woman had been there all along. She was Pepper. But I still wasn't ready, not emotionally. At least I didn't believe I was. And then of course, I thought I was dying."

At this his son's head jerked up, his eyes wide.

"What?!"

Tony chuckled and continued.

"Yeah. Remember the terrorists I mentioned?"

Harold nodded.

"Well they were the reason I first needed and Arc Reactor in my chest. Of course it had palladium in it so I ended up with poisoning from that. I tried all known elements for replacements, but there were none. It was so fucking ironic. The very thing I created to keep me from dying was killing me.

I didn't tell her about it. Your mom. I couldn't. She may not have known how I was beginning to feel for her, but we were still close friends and I just couldn't bring myself to tell her any of it. If I told her how I felt what would be the point? I was gonna die. And because of how I felt I just couldn't tell her. I didn't want to see the pity or sympathy.

S.H.I.E.L.D soon became involved. Romanoff had infiltrated my company and had told them all she found out. Guess I really should thank them. It's cause of them giving me your granddad's old stuff that I discovered – well re-discovered – a new element that saved my life.

After the shit that went down with grudge bearing Vanko and son, plus that dick head Justin Hammer well I finally realised, why the hell should I be wasting my life? So I flew her up on a roof top after hashing it out with a Russian with issues and I finally kissed her."

A soft smile played on Tony's mouth as he said that last part, his now grey goatee moving with his smile. A similar soft smile was on his son's face as he watched his father recall what was clearly a happy memory for him.

"What then?" Harold asked gently.

"Well, not long after, the first team of Avengers was assembled. We kicked major alien ass, and SHIELD's council at the time made a stupid decision that nearly cost us millions of lives. They sent a nuke that I made the decision to dispose of through a portal. When I was carrying it through, I remember thinking that my biggest regret in the world at that moment was never telling your mom that I loved her. I tried to call her to tell her but she didn't pick up. She was watching the news reels as we were being invaded, and as she saw the Iron Man suit carry a nuke into space.

Two weeks after that, I still hadn't told her I loved her. I think she knew but she got sick of waiting for me, because I remember sitting with her at home and watching her as she watched the movie we were playing and then her turning to me and saying really calmly and keeping in with the speech of the movie 'Boy can I tell you a wonderful thing? I can't help but notice you're staring at me. I know I shouldn't say this but I really believe; I can tell by eyes that you're in love with me.' And I remember just looking at her and then reaching for her and kissing her and whispering between every kiss that yes, I did. I loved her so much.

Now, son, I'm only telling you this, because life can do terrible things"

Before Harold could question his father on that last statement he carried on with his story.

"Now most of the time we'd have too much to drink – well mostly me actually but sometimes she'd have a couple glasses with me. And sometimes I'd fly us out to the middle of nowhere and we'd just sit under all of the stars and we'd laugh at all the things we could see. We'd share about our lived too. She'd talk about what happened during her day whilst she was working. I couldn't have cared less about the work stuff, but it was what she enjoyed and I loved listening to her voice when she'd get excited or when she'd just laugh. And I'd tell her the latest gadget I'd made or what new things I'd put into my suits and I could tell that she wasn't all that interested about my subject matter either but the fact was that it was our time together and it was a time when we could actually have a conversation without any distractions at all. And we were too young to notice and too dumb to care. Love was just a story that couldn't compare.

And then your mom she fell pregnant with you, and whilst I was shitting myself and panicking at the thought of having a child I don't think that I'd ever been happier in my entire life."

Tony's smile was wide and his face was filled with warmth as he talked about Pepper and discovering she was pregnant with his child.

But then his smile faded and became a little bit bitter and Harold wondered what had exactly had happened that could make his father look this way.

"You were about two years old, and your mom had just put you to bed. She came down the stairs looking exhausted but happy, and I remember thinking to myself that this is how I want to spend the rest of my life. Tired but happy with the woman I loved at my side. I pulled out this bit of folded together paper with string tied around it that I had been carrying in my pocket for last eighteen months, and I finally plucked the courage and I said to her

'Girl, can I tell you a wonderful thing? I made you a present with paper and string. Open with care now, I'm asking you, please. You know that I love you, will you marry me?'"

Harold could see the tears beginning to form in his father's eyes, in remembrance for what must have happened next.

"Dad, you don't ha-" Harold started but his father interrupted him.

"Now, son, I'm only telling you this, because life can do terrible things. You'll learn, one day, and I'll hope and I'll pray, that God or who the fuck ever shows you differently.

Your mom, she began to cry softly and I remember looking at her in confusion, like why was she crying? Is this what women did when proposed to? I didn't know, never cared enough to find out. And I remember her exact words even now. She said, 'Boy can I tell you a terrible thing? It seems that I'm sick and I've only got weeks. Please, please, don't be sad now, I really believe, that you and Harold were the greatest things that _ever _happened to me."

His father's tears streamed down his face as he held it in his hands, his drink long forgotten and Harold just didn't know what to do. He had never expected any of this to happen.

"I was in shock." Tony continued, "I didn't know what to do or think and I just fell, so slowly to the ground on my knees."

Sobs wracked Tony's chest. He had never told anyone this before, about how he had found out, that he had proposed to her not seconds before.

Through his heaving sobs Tony spoke,

"So don't fall in love, there's just too much to lose. If you're given the choice, then I beg you to choose to walk away and don't let her get you, Harold. I couldn't bear to see the same thing happen to you."

Harold held his father through his tears, his own spilling down his face in grief for his father and his mother who had died and for himself who had never had the chance to remember her and know her.

After what seemed like hours, Tony's sobs slowed to mere tears still pouring until they too stopped all together. He gripped his son's hand which was lay on his shoulder now, and squeezed before letting out a shuddering breath and standing, letting the hand fall.

Tony walked away and towards the doors of his lab which slid open silently in response to his presence. He paused before, turning back to his son and saying,

"Now, son, I've only told you this because life; Well life can be a bitch and she can do terrible things."


End file.
